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2025 County Report

Fires in St. Clair County, AL

In 2025, fire departments serving St. Clair County responded to 768 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $100K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

53,704 residents FIPS 01115 40 cities · 3 fire depts
Total incidents
768
3,813 across 5 years
Building fires
86
213 wildland
Property loss
$2.0M
$1.4M structure · $579K contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 civ deaths · 1 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.

768
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 101 13.2%
Power line down 99 12.9%
Building fires 86 11.2%
Grass fire 51 6.6%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 50 6.5%
All other categories 381 49.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in St. Clair County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 70
Feb 81
Mar 164
Apr 62
May 71
Jun 57
Jul 48
Aug 42
Sep 39
Oct 54
Nov 55
Dec 25
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in St. Clair County

3,813 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 448
2022 712
2023 953
2024 932
2025 768
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 86 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
54%
124
Cause undetermined
16%
37
Intentional / arson
6%
14
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
26
Under investigation
10%
23
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
5
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $830K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in St. Clair County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 60% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $100,000 Pell City Building fires Significant
2 $100,000 PELL CITY Building fires Significant
3 $100,000 Ashville Building fires Significant
4 $100,000 Ashville Building fires Significant
5 $100,000 Riverside Building fires Significant
6 $100,000 Riverside Building fires Significant
7 $75,000 Springville Building fires Significant
8 $55,000 Cropwell Building fires Significant
9 $50,000 Pell City Building fires Significant
10 $50,000 ASHVILLE Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How St. Clair County compares

St. Clair County vs AL vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

14.3
Incidents per 1,000 residents
St. Clair County
14.3
AL avg
9.37
US avg
7.15
1.6
Building fires per 1,000 residents
St. Clair County
1.6
AL avg
1.28
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
St. Clair County
0
AL avg
11.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in St. Clair County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 01115.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in St. Clair County

3 departments report from this county.

Wattsville FD
Ragland
FDID 05920 101 incidents 18 vol
Ashville FD
Ashville
FDID 05902 62 incidents 3 paid 10 vol
Margaret Fire Rescue Service
Margaret
FDID 05908 25 incidents 1 paid 30 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in AL

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 426 B 2019 USFS 2,671
2 Lake Chinnabee 2016 USFS 2,228
3 742 2019 USFS 1,787
4 Rd07-09 2006 NPS 1,467
5 Big Candle 2019 USFS 1,272
6 Half Way 2016 USFS 1,066
7 LRP NORTHEAST SOUTH RX 2023 NPS 1,026
8 Welcome Home 1 2016 USFS 1,008
9 Road 09-08 WF 2006 NPS 978
10 Caney Head 2016 USFS 932

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.